Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre

[Deljah]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is your Kindle able to handle KF8 eBooks or is it too old? If you Kindle can handle KF8 eBooks, then the best solution is to use a web browser to download the eBooks direct from Amazon as long as you have your Kindle registered with Amazon.

I don't know if the Kindle can handle KF8 books or not. I don't use it. I might turn it on once or twice a year at most. I prefer to read epubs on my phone.

At any rate, I followed the instructions that said to download a book from Amazon, using the download and transfer by usb option. I downloaded the book to my laptop, then added it to Calibre. Converted it to epub and emailed it to myself using my email service. I can never get the direct-from-Calibre email function to work. Next mystery to solve, lol!

[Ellie]

Thanks goodness for the info I get here. I just switched to Win 11, put Kindle for PC on and forgot to stop the updates. I ended up with a bunch of unusable files and I was perplexed till I read this thread. I was getting KFX files which I could do nothing with. I'm back to v1.1.7 on Kindle for PC and it's all fixed now thanks to you guys!

[sakuramiko12]

So I did the intructions mentioned in the first thread (reverted to 1.17 & downloaded the book by having it sent to my k4pc) but when I try to open it in the kindle app I get an error msg "Item not available for this file type" "Your kindle requires and update to view this content". I am signed into my amazon account on the kpc. Also no files are showing up in my 'MY Kindke Content Folder' aside from what was downloaded years ago.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by sakuramiko12

So I did the intructions mentioned in the first thread (reverted to 1.17 & downloaded the book by having it sent to my k4pc) but when I try to open it in the kindle app I get an error msg "Item not available for this file type" "Your kindle requires and update to view this content". I am signed into my amazon account on the kpc. Also no files are showing up in my 'MY Kindke Content Folder' aside from what was downloaded years ago.

Is that book only available as a .kfx file? You might want to update to a version of K4PC that can download KFX but with DRM that can be removed.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by sakuramiko12

So I did the intructions mentioned in the first thread (reverted to 1.17 & downloaded the book by having it sent to my k4pc) but when I try to open it in the kindle app I get an error msg "Item not available for this file type" "Your kindle requires and update to view this content".

As DNSB mentioned some books are only available in KFX format and cannot be downloaded with older software. In some cases you can work around it by installing version 1.26 which is the last version of Kindle for PC compatible with KFX DRM removal. However some books require an even newer version and those cannot be handled at this time.

If you share the ASIN (10 character ID) of the book(s) involved it may be possible to determine which case applies.

[catsknit]

I have used Calibre and associated plugins on my kindle books for years with no issues. I have Kindle for PC set not to update, and am using version 1.31 as always. I'm on Windows 10, Calibre version 6.4 and the latest plug-ins.

I've had a large number of Kindle books in Calibre for several years, already converted to epubs. Suddenly, the titles are still there but none of them have ANY associated book files with them. No kfx, no epub, no azw. Nothing.

When I tried to import them from my Kindle library on the PC again, I couldn't find them b/c Kindle doesn't use names, only their numbering system. So I renamed that folder to My Kindle Content old, and started a new one. I removed the books in the Kindle for PC library, and started to re-download them. I tried several older books first, which i knew I had acquired several years ago before DRM changed, etc. Examples Uncle Tom's Cabin purchased in 2011 and Adventurous Boy's Handbook purchased in 2011. when I redownload them to Kindle for PC, then try to import them into Calibre, they come in with a title of whatever letters and numbers Kindle is using to identify, and they cannot be opened.

So, I noticed that when I click on the title of either book from the Content page of my Amazon account, it goes to a 404 page, like they no longer carry the book. So maybe that's why it's acting up.

Next, I redownloaded a book I just bought in Aug 2022 The Cabin in the Woods. It also comes into Calibre the same way, unreadable title and a warning that it cannot be converted because it's kfx.

I have followed all the instructions from the post explaining how to deal with kfx and don't know what I am missing. I can post the error file if that would be helpful but it's long.

If there is no way to convert the newer books I understand and can read them on my tablet with the kindle app, though I prefer the e-ink reader. (Kobo Libra)
But I don't understand how all those book files were lost in Calibre. I have never knowingly moved any files and it seems weird that the only missing ones are originally kindle books. None of the epubs I've gotten from Google books, B&N or Kobo have been affected.

Any help appreciated.

update - after writing this out I read through all of the error message and found the link to harper's FAQ. Rereading that again I realized I need to revert to version 1.19 of Kindle for pc so am doing that now. I know I had that version at one time and have always set it to not update but somewhere it did. <facepalm>
Still don't understand how Calibre lost all those azw files though.

[catsknit]

After installing the correct Kindle for pc version again it started working but shut down after downloading 2 books. When I restarted it, it updated even though I had specifically unchecked that box! Then it wouldn't open at all, would just start and fail. I had to uninstall it, re-install the old one again and then add that "disable k4pc download.bat" file. Seems to working now but now I have all those old books to fix metadata on again. yes, I had backups but they weren't recent and before I realized all my Amazon books were gone, I'd been updating metadata and organizing a lot of newer books. Didn't want to lose all that. Lesson learned, back up more often.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by catsknit

After installing the correct Kindle for pc version again it started working but shut down after downloading 2 books. When I restarted it, it updated even though I had specifically unchecked that box! Then it wouldn't open at all, would just start and fail. I had to uninstall it, re-install the old one again and then add that "disable k4pc download.bat" file. Seems to working now but now I have all those old books to fix metadata on again. yes, I had backups but they weren't recent and before I realized all my Amazon books were gone, I'd been updating metadata and organizing a lot of newer books. Didn't want to lose all that. Lesson learned, back up more often.

Do you keep your library in a cloud (Dropbox, OneDrive) or on a network drive? Perhaps OneDrive is syncing the library folder in the background?

[catsknit]

No, my working library is only on my laptop. I back up periodically to a separate hard drive and to One Drive but those are only backups, not acting as the actual library.

After working through adding back the amazon books last night I also found a few non-amazon ones where the title and metadata were there but no book files any longer. Not nearly as many as the amazon ones but a handful. Luckily I had those all still on my hard drive in original condition and just re-imported into Calibre.

[Valkrider]

Originally Posted by odamizu

For K4Mac, look for the "updates" folder in the User > Library > Application Support > Kindle folder. If you can't find it there, try: Application Support > Containers > com.amazon.Kindle

Follow instructions from Apple Support to change the "updates" folder permissions to "Read only"

If you're comfortable with Terminal, you can make the "updates" folder read-only by applying chmod -w

On Monterey I can't find either of these folders any suggestions on where they are now please?

[justloveebooks]

You may need to change a setting and / or File-Manager. Using a Commander (like the old Norton Commander) myself, but had to give it access to the whole hard disk in systems settings. It asks for that with a pop-up, so it should be no problem to set it.
Still, even after that setting some directories may be hidden.

[JSWolf]

Personally, I will not allow anything Norton on my computer.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Personally, I will not allow anything Norton on my computer.

Norton Commander was actually a pretty decent file manager back in the day. Unfortunately (or more likely fortunately, seeing the directions Norton has gone), it hasn't been updated in more than two decades. Total Commander, its unofficial successor, is very popular.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Personally, I will not allow anything Norton on my computer.

Symantec bought them (and a bunch of others) a while back.

Things went down hill from there

I will never allow anything that comes in that Yellow box on my system ever again.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Valkrider

On Monterey I can't find either of these folders any suggestions on where they are now please?

I am still on Catalina, but if Monterey is the same, the Library folder is hidden by default. To make it visible:

Go to your User Folder, select Show View Options, then check Library Folder to make it visible.

Alternatively, you can go to the Finder menu bar and click Go while pressing down the Option key. The Library folder should appear in one of the dropdown choices.

Once you're in the Library folder, you can navigate to the proper subfolder: User > Library > Application Support > Kindle folder or User > Library > Application Support > Containers > com.amazon.Kindle